Pinal fires shootout deputy for interviews

Puroll loses job over bold claims to reporter

by Dennis Wagner - Jan. 6, 2011 12:00 AMThe Arizona Republic

A Pinal County sheriff's deputy who received departmental awards after a purported gunbattle with smugglers last year was fired Wednesday for bragging to a reporter that Mexican cartel members had asked him to work for them and saying that a friend had offered to murder the journalist in retaliation for critical news stories.

Sheriff Paul Babeu terminated Louie Puroll, a 14-year deputy, for suspected violations of 10 departmental policies involving issues of ethics, truthfulness and competency. Babeu said Wednesday that he thinks Puroll was exaggerating in his interviews with Phoenix New Times reporter Paul Rubin.

"When I heard this, I was almost in disbelief that he could tell such a story," said Babeu, noting that the deputy had never reported those criminal matters to his superiors or to other law enforcement.

Although Puroll's credibility is now in question and his dramatic account of a desert gunfight has been challenged by numerous experts, Babeu said he is convinced that the story is true.

"I stood by my deputy after he was shot by smugglers in April because his statements to both criminal and internal investigators were consistent (and) supported by physical evidence," Babeu said. "(But) this goes far beyond anything that I could tolerate. . . . Today he was fired, and he no longer will be a deputy."

Puroll could not be reached for comment. The deputy suffered a minor flesh wound to his side during a shootout that propelled him and Babeu into the national media spotlight amid public debate over border security and Arizona's tough immigration law known as Senate Bill 1070.

After the incident, some law-enforcement veterans and others suggested that, because of conflicting physical evidence and inconsistencies in his story, Puroll fabricated the incident.

Puroll received a Purple Heart, and sheriff's investigators concluded the shootout was authentic.

The deputy's purported gunbattle took place in a notorious smuggling and banditry area southwest of Casa Grande. An estimated 200 law officers converged on the scene, supported by helicopters and tracking dogs. Neither the attackers nor their loads of marijuana were found.

Critics challenged Puroll's account based on a number of inconsistencies involving the timeline, recovered cartridges and other issues.

On PoliceLink, an Internet site for law-enforcement agents, an article titled "Dishonesty by officer requires termination" notes that, once integrity has been breached, an officer's testimony in criminal cases becomes subject to impeachment.

On Wednesday, at least one expert suggested that an independent review of the shooting incident might be in order because Puroll's credibility was compromised.

"It definitely jaundices my view," said J.P. Crank, a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. "I probably would call for another investigation."

Puroll, a search-and-rescue deputy, was suspended last year pending the investigation into his comments to the reporter.

Babeu said he believes Puroll's claims to New Times were "a lot of embellishing, a lot of storytelling" rather than truthful accounts that had not been properly reported. He would not reveal what the deputy told investigators except in general terms: "Louie Puroll said, you know, hey, he was telling stories."

Samuel Walker, a professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, said he had not seen such a case in 37 years of criminological studies.

"Let's give the sheriff credit for firing the guy," Walker said. "But I just can't think of anything this bizarre. . . . Immigration enforcement has become so highly politicized, maybe he wants to stick with the story to champion it."